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Editor's note: This story has been updated to include Jeff Bosco as co-teacher of the forensics class.

We all know the story of Rudolph, the cute little red-nosed reindeer from the North Pole.

But at William Penn High School this year, students are getting to know a different "Rudolph" — this one's dead.

Like, really dead.

"It's a part of life," 10th-grader Jason Nolasco said sagely, commenting on the badly decomposed deer carcass kept behind the high school for study.

"It doesn't disturb me, no," the student went on. "I think it's interesting because it shows us decomposition and the different stages of life."

Nolasco's a student in Frank Lusch's forensics class, which provides an overview of criminal forensics studies and evidence as it applies to the criminal justice system. The class evaluates, in part, how biology, chemistry and physics tie into the field and how trace evidence is used in court cases.

Lusch said he created the course several years ago with the help of Jeff Bosco, who co-teaches the class. They were inspired by a book called "Death's Acre," written by Dr. Bill Bass — it details the history and background of the University of Tennessee's so-called "Body Farm," which has become an enormous source of research and information for many people involved in forensic anthropology.

Bass established the Forensic Anthropology Center in 1987. Beginning with a modest spot of land for the Anthropology Research Facility, he began studying donated bodies as they decomposed.

The bodies are exposed to different temperatures and conditions, with some even locked in car trunks or submerged under water. Data gathered is used in forensic science cases to help determine time and matter of death.

"This book became a favorite topic for my students as well as providing an outstanding opportunity for Mr. Bosco to get into teaching topics like chemical decomposition, entomology (bug studies and their roles in decomposition) and life cycle," Lusch said.

But Bosco and the students had to rely on written descriptions of decomposition events, which wasn't always engaging.

So, "in an effort to bring the topic to life (or death) we contacted all of our many sources in the New Castle community to conduct a 'hard target' search for a roadkill deer that was relatively intact," Lusch said.

Over the years, parents, staff and DelDOT have helped track down specimens, he said. They are placed at the edge of a field behind William Penn High School to decompose.

"The research and observation allows the students to see an application of many of the principles addressed by Dr. Bass, as well as many of his colleagues," Lusch said. "These issues include: roles of insects, roles of scavengers and time of decay process. Since we have been doing this for many years, we're are able to demonstrate the role of temperature and elements (snow). We can help students identify the role of scavengers and how to identify their role (including beak scarring from vultures on bones)."

As for the young researchers, "many students are very excited about this practice," he said. "Some are grossed out. All in all, it goes very well."

Nolasco said being able to actually see the deer, up close and personal, is more powerful than looking at pictures, which is why he likes the project so much.

He said students watch as the deer was slowly picked apart by scavengers and parasites, the rear end first and then the eyes and the tongue.

Kaitlin Delaria, a junior, said observing the decomposition was gross, but cool.

"We carried it off the truck and put it back there and watched," she said. "It was interesting to see how it went through all the changes in the snow and then the warm weather.

"We'd go up to and there'd still be vultures picking at it, getting their beaks into the crevices to get the meat out And there were lots of flies," Delaria said. "I though there was only one kind, but there isn't. Mr. Lusch knows so many different kinds of flies."

Contact Jessica Bies at (302) 324-2881 or jbies@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @jessicajbies.